The heat diffusion constant in water is a physical constant that can be measured (with varying accuracy) in many ways. This lab guides you through the most delicious one! By baking molten chocolate cake, you will study how heat transfers into cake batter as the cake cooks, resulting in a “crust front” that moves toward the center of the cake as the batter gradually reaches the temperature at which it solidifies. By taking temperature measurements along the way, you will be able to calculate the heat diffusion constant of cake batter, and since cake batter is primarily made of water, this will not be far from the heat diffusion constant in water — or so we think, let’s see what diffusion constant you and your classmates arrive at! Ice cream made with liquid nitrogen is made by the opposite process (Part II). The ice cream ingredients are almost instantly cooled down when brought in contact with the liquid nitrogen at -196˚C. Since larger ice crystals do not have time to form, the result is an ice cream that is very smooth in texture.

We would like to invite you to submit an abstract to give an oral presentation in the symposium Approaches to Using Food and Cooking to Engage Diverse Audiences in Science at the ACS National Meeting in Boston, MA from August 19 – 23, 2018.

The deadline for abstracts is MONDAY MARCH 26 – about two weeks from now.

Description of symposium:

Approaches in using food and cooking to engage diverse audiences in science

This symposium will address using food and cooking as a way to teach chemistry and related subjects. Presenters from a wide variety of backgrounds and institution types are invited to submit abstracts, including college, community college, tribal college, K-12 and informal science educators. The purpose of this symposium is to bring together diverse types of educators to find ways to collaborate and share strategies and challenges for implementing science and cooking activities in a variety of settings.